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This message has been distributed to all UT employees with Principal Investigator (PI) status, as well as all UT graduate students and postdocs.
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Dear PI Colleagues, Graduate Students, and Postdocs,
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For many of us, this may be an especially difficult time. In Central Texas, fall feels like it’s finally arrived, courses are winding down, and now is when most of us would make plans to travel for the holidays. If you’re staying home and connecting with friends and family from a distance, I hope this time, at the very least, brings you a chance to rest and recuperate. If your table — virtual or shared — will be missing someone you’ve lost this year, my heartfelt sympathy and condolences go out to you.
And if you are one of the estimated 50 million people who will be traveling in the next several days, I want to urge you to be as cautious as ever. COVID-19 cases are slowly increasing within our UT community, and hospitalizations and ICU admissions have increased substantially in Texas. And in fact, because these numbers are projected to rise through December, Austin has moved back this morning to Stage 4 risk-based guidelines. We are remaining at Research Level 3 for the time being, but we will continue to evaluate our own policies and are prepared to make changes if necessary.
As you’re preparing for the Thanksgiving holiday amid these conditions, please keep a few things in mind:
Get Tested Now and When You Return
Limited PCT appointments remain for the rest of this week through next Monday. If you’ve been considering getting tested, don’t wait. Make an appointment through MyUHS. If no appointments are available for your selected date, you can keep checking for cancellations that have been relisted or see if any new walkup clinics have been made available. You can also consider alternative testing options at various locations as well as City of Austin COVID-19 testing sites.
Note that no proactive community testing is available at UT November 25th – 29th, but testing will resume with normal hours November 30th – December 17th.
If you will be traveling out of the area for Thanksgiving, it is strongly recommended that you self-quarantine for seven days before you resume in-person research on campus. If you will be traveling during the longer semester break in December and January, the university is encouraging a 14-day self-quarantine (seven days prior to returning to Austin and another seven days prior to resuming research activity in person). PIs and supervisors should accommodate their students’ and research staff’s desire to self-quarantine by permitting them to work remotely as needed for seven days after returning from travel.
Building Access
Research will continue to operate under the Research Restart protocols during the post-Thanksgiving period and during the winter holiday break. Please work with your local building managers to make sure undergraduate students conducting research with your teams have access to buildings during times when they’re closed to the public. Graduate students will continue to have access to labs, studios, and other campus facilities.
Research Deliveries
During COVID, packages for research labs have been delivered to one location at the STEM stockroom in NHB. This option is will not be available during the post-Thanksgiving period through the start of Spring semester, however. Instead, each CSU is responsible for coordinating deliveries and will need to decide how their research buildings will manage package delivery for labs. Please consult with your Associate Dean for Research for more information if this will affect your team.
Library Services
The Perry-Castañeda Library will close for the Thanksgiving holiday and reopen November 29th. PCL will be open for faculty, students, and staff from 7 a.m. – 11 p.m. during the post-Thanksgiving period concluding December 17. Other library locations will follow their posted schedules.
Campus Safety
SURE Walk and Night Rides will continue to operate. Check the webpages for hours and other details, and please consider using one of these services if you are on campus after dark.
Cookies Next Week
And last (but not least), President Hartzell would like to thank everyone who’s worked so hard this year, particularly those who have been on campus during the pandemic. Fresh-baked cookies will be delivered to different buildings on Monday and Tuesday next week, including a very large delivery of individually wrapped cookies for researchers, which will be brought to the STEM stockroom. If you’re already working on campus next week, please stop by and help yourselves!
I’ve said it before but it bears repeating: the reason UT is known globally for its research contributions and output is because of each of you. Discoveries don’t happen on their own. All of our successes are thanks to the thousands of researchers who dedicate their professional lives to making them happen. We can’t do these great things without you, so please stay safe and come back to us healthy.
Happy Thanksgiving,
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Alison R. Preston, Ph.D.
Interim Vice President for Research
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